Producer: Level 9
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: M N, & P Austin

The Silicon Dream trilogy, begun by the text-only Snowball and followed up by Return to Eden, is now completed with The Worm in Paradise. Being the third part of a trilogy, this game is guaranteed a lot of sales but the game will make perfect sense without playing the other two, and it has enough worthy features to recommend it on its own.

The story takes place on the planet Eden, one hundred years after the time of Snowball and Return to Eden. You are a citizen of Enoch megapolis, the first and smallest of the domed cities which support Eden's population of half a billion people. There is no contact between the human populations inside the domes and the world outside, so rumours of alien life forms on the planet are rife. It is said that flying saucers are regularly seen and that intelligent moles live in deep tunnels.

The game takes place during the reign of the third Kim, and Eden is run as a benevolent bureaucracy. This is the paradise of the title, where the silent majority live in the peace created by full employment, no crime, good housing, and more entertainment than is possible to enjoy in a lifetime. There is no way to challenge the system, but what right-thinking individual would want to?

The politics of Enoch are curious and take Reganomics to their logical conclusion. Governments can theoretically run at a profit, extorting no taxes from their citizens but getting income from such sources as fines for criminal offences. This involves tight controls on services and routine supervision of the populace to catch trouble-makers. Millions of robots, immune from corruption, work tirelessly to run the state as the Government wishes. Robots do all the important work and most of the menial jobs. It is difficult to tell whether humans are the leisured aristocrats, or the pets of robots.

The Enoch Police naturally enough turn in a profit. Fines rather than imprisonment, rewards to informants, summary justice to cut court costs, and fines on every small vice ensure a steady stream of money towards the long robot arm of the law. Enoch hospitals also make a profit, partly by the re-sale of body parts to ageing recipients and partly by charging for in-patient care. Making medical advice freely available via computer and minimising the time patients spend in hospital helps to turn costs into profits. In the larger scheme of things the people of Eden, originally intended as a source for future colonists, are left with no further role to play as the robots and machines mine every asteroid and hollow out every moon in their path, and build people on site.

The story behind this adventure is much better than the normal hotch potch which accompanies other games. The plot has real depth and relevance, a bit like the famous Star Trek TV scripts. As with Star Trek this game has a fair sprinkling of humour to sweeten what is quite a bitter task, that of changing an inhuman bureaucracy into a society where humans are worth something beyond just being robot fodder (that is, if I got the gist of the plot right from the amount of the adventure I completed).

You begin within a dream where you find yourself in a garden. Following the worm you feel pleased with yourself for getting somewhere whereupon you suddenly wake up! it becomes clear that you have been dreaming in a pleasuredome and, leaving your visor aside, you can begin the adventure proper - unless you were dreaming of a dream within a...

The Worm in Paradise evolved alongside a 12 month enhancement on Level 9's very own adventure system. Standard features include a 1,000 word vocabulary, a very highly advanced English input, memory enhancing-text compression, the now familiar and very much appreciated type-ahead, and multi-tasking so a player need never wait while a picture is drawn. To be honest, the graphics take imaginative skills a bit too far and most of the pictures can only be described as poor. The story, descriptive depth, vocabulary, and the many sophisticated features go to make Level 9's latest a really good adventure game.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: no push over
Graphics: imaginative, but poor
Presentation: good
Input facility: sophisticated
Response: fast

BEAST OF EDEN

Level 9's new adventure The Worm in paradise is set on the far-distant planet of Eden. But all is not well in the Garden. Join Death as he takes you on the trip of a lifetime - or rather several lifetimes. Nothing is impossible on Paradise...

FAX BOX
Game: The Worm in Paradise
Publisher: Level 9
Price: £9.99

Yes come to Enoch, the capital of Eden. Level 9 Tours is offering 200 colourful locations packed full of fun, night-life and wild surprises and if you don't believe it just take a look at the brochure.

DESTINATION
Capital Investment

You arrive in Eden, with the special Trans-Ident Soul-Swop facility, in the body of a typical Eden dweller who's drinking in the pleasure of Reveline's Dream Parlour - dreamy eh? Well not everything's as dreamy as Eden isn't always a paradise.

Throw away your Eden-English, English-Eden pocket dictionary for a start. These guys aren't Neanderthals - they speak a rather simplified standard Galactic English. Your Speccy Bio-Trans facility features a thousand word vocabulary that'll give you more rabbit than a well known Enoch supermarket chain.

If you fancy a visit to one of Enoch's emporiums you'll need the standard currency unit - the Cred. Sorry but American Express Inter-Galactic Traveller's cheques won't do nicely here. Prices are a bit hight than on Earth but a good thing's worth paying that bit extra for.

Here are some of Eden's heavenly prices:
Reveline's Dream Parlour - 9 creds
Pleasure Dome Entrance - 9 creds
Newspaper - free
Musuem - free
Casino - 1 cred
Pie - 9 creds

In fact all's fine in Eden, 'cept of course, the fines. You may be offered a few things on the streets for free. That's 'cos they're illegal.

Yeah, it is the other way round on Earth. Fines, like the Space Patrol Group, can be heavy but don't worry there's always a way to recoup your losses in Eden.

Fines
For being in debt - 50 creds
Possession of an illegal object - 9 creds
Theft - 500 creds

MONEY
A wealth of health

Many travellers fear the unknown. Will I be able to drink the water? Do I need vaccines? Relax! The inhabitant of Eden have discovered the secret of almost eternal life - thanks to the transplant of worn-out bodily organs.

So if you fancy a fling in the Pleasure Dome or you want to buy a pet for pay a fine!) it could cost you an arm and a leg - literally! A limb'll bring in about 600 creds cash-in-hand - that's if you've got a hand to hold it in! Enoch Hospital, south of the City Square will do a quick clean job, cut-price!

PEOPLE
See the natives in their local habitat!

Eden's inhabitants are a friendly bunch. Many of them are robots who're going about their daily lives oblivious of the curious tourists around them - yes you! Fuzzbots, the local constabulary, are on hand to keep you out of trouble. But if you do get up to naughties - buying illegal items, shoplifting, insolvency - the gates of Eden's gaol won't close on you, you'll only be fined.

TOURS
Sites and sounds

Frankly, you start at the Pleasure Dome. If you really want some fun you can throw crap in the Casino, muse in the museums and visit the pet shop. It'll cost you, but for a holiday like this it's worth going out on a limb even if you're left without a leg to stand on.

THE MUSEUM
See the inflatable Kim Kimberley, complete with bowl of lentil porridge! Keep your hands off her, or you won't keep your hands on! Remember here on Eden they can remove organs other planets can't teach!

The Casino
Great fun this! just select a colour and pull the arm of the One-Armed-Bandit, watch his eyes light up and your credit balance drop! It's a scream and you might even win some money - there's a twenty cred jackpot waiting for some lucky tourist.

Revelines Dream Dome
Just the thing for the weary travellers! Enter your choice of chamber, don the visor, and enjoy a brief but invigorating sleep with a special pre-programmed nightmare. Eeeekkk!

The City Plaza
A tribute to modern civil engineerings, this is one location every tourist should have on his or her list. You should also visit the Municipal Buildings and the Monument on Glory Road. And when you're ready to go further afield try the Eden Transport System.

ROUND AND ABOUT IN EDEN

No great big red double decker turbo buses here - just the smooth sophistication of the pedway that connects each city district. Earthling's find it all a bit disorienting as the roundabouts are numerous and they all look the same! And with forty million colour-coded destinations don't blame it on us if you end up off the beaten pedway. The Michelin guides are a bit thin here so your best bet is to draw yourself a map. If all else fails Level 9 Tours can provide you with a simple program that'll enable you to get where you're going.

STREET CRED

Part of our bumper package is a set of Trad-Clads - well we don't want you arrested for indecency do we? - and 100 creds. We also supply you with a personal designer tattoo, a device that'll tell you the time and also keep a check on your finances. Every Eden hour it'll buzz - like those quaint 20th Century ones that used to go off all over the cinema when the film was just getting to a good bit. Should you succumb to the magic of Eden then you could have a spaceman's holiday - and do a job of work. But don't forget that you must be properly registered.

RETURN ONCE MORE TO EDEN IN THE FINAL PART OF LEVEL 9'S SILICON DREAM TRILOGY

Publisher: Level 9
Programmers: Mike, Nick and Pete Austin
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K

I doubt whether the family Bible would normally be considered an aid to adventuring but after playing through the opening sequence of The Worm in Paradise. I found myself scanning my dusty shelves to trace an ancient and tattered copy of the Authorised Version... There it was - Genesis, chapter three - where the crafty serpent whispers into Eve's ear, urging her to taste the forbidden fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden - "Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil".

Of course, she eats the apple and the original Eden becomes a place of toil and misery , but the action brings free choice into the world and the power of understanding to men and women. Something similar will happen to you when, as an inhabitant of a second Eden, you dream Reveline's dream.

Wandering the fragrant lawns you are bound to find the tree and stand on the bench to take the fruit. You'll eat it too and then see the worm fall from the core, growing, moving and destroying as it goes, shattering the ivied walls of the garden and showing you the harsh and bitter world beyond.

Change and decay have entered the perfect paradise... and you now know that something is wrong, not quite the way you always thought it was.

This paradise of course is Level 9's Eden, a planet of Epsilon Eridani and the destination of the ship Snowball. It was over a hundred years ago when the settlers and Kim Kimberley arrived there. The robots had already built domed cities and the humans moved in, avoiding contact with the strange, dangerous, animal and plant life of their new world.

It is now the reign of the third Kim and the domed cities are ruled by a 'benevolent bureaucracy', an elite which monitors the intentions and actions of the citizens through the plastic collars that all wear. For their own good and safety of course... but who are they, and whose safety is being protected? Eat the apple and begin to think long and hard.

The dream of the tree and the garden is quickly over and you wake to find yourself in the pleasure dome of Enoch, smallest of the cities. To the unquestioning it may seem like a Utopia, a brave new world. There is peace, no crime - the fuzbots see to that - full employment and all the entertainment you can take - provided you can pay. Check the tattoo on your wrist to find out city time or your credit rating.

Almost everything is going to cost you but don't worry too much... If you go broke or get into debt you can always sell one of your body organs to the Enoch Health Service. This highly profitable organisation will offer you a reward if you report a disease spreader or a health risk, just like the police who will pay well for hard information on malcontents or dissidents.

Let's take a stroll in the city. Dropping your dream visor you move from Reveline's palace into the central corridor of the pleasure area. Happy, healthy citizens jog past, thronging the casino and the shops. There's a museum where you can marvel at the inflatable statue of the first Kim, a clean habihall to relax in, a kiosk to buy your imitation pizza. There's also a splendid temple - but you are barred from here, only the invited elite is welcome.

If you enter the pet shop and buy a lovable little dagget you'll quickly learn one of the tougher facts of life in Enoch. Failure to consume quickly or an unhealthy urge to hold onto possessions too long is illegal. Those friendly buzzing droids who look after the smiling joggers are fuzbots - police surveillance robots who will fine you on the spot for possessing illegal objects - and just about everything is illegal.

Oh yes, the dagget... It's a doglike droid and very expensive, in fact so expensive that you'll run into deep debt and be dragged off to the hospital by the fuzbots. There you'll find to your horror that your remaining body organs won't cover your debt. Even tougher, O citizen, this means recycling, which some might call death, but is simply a manifestation of market forces, a fact of economics. It doesn't hurt so there's no need to be scared.

The central area of the city is filled with dream parks, theme parks and places for fantasy and escape. Look a little closer as you travel the expressways and pedways of the dome... is all that there just to keep you quiet? Why do armed citizens patrol the streets? Why do the police arrest earnest socialists outside the memorial to the Third World War? Why do the papers you buy all attack the government? Something is happening but you don't know what it is. Yet.

In the early stages of the adventure you will probably concentrate more on trying to find your way around the city than on politics. As your chrono-tattoo buzzes the time for curfew you may begin to wonder where you live amongst the other few million dwellers and suspect that there are other sectors to find, even tunnels beneath the city. Rumour has it that there are huge intelligent moles roaming those places and you've heard warnings of aliens and flying saucers...

Ah yes, Enoch in Eden is a fine place to be so long as you don't get the itch to pry or complain. The Level 9 team has packed the considerable amount they know about adventure programming into The Worm in Paradise - and that's quite a lot.

First off you get the choice of either a vast text-only game, with acres of leisurely description, or a snappy graphics version with pared-down detail which is essentially the same game. I like having the option of two versions to play, as the mood takes me, and it seems better than just being able to switch off the pictures. After games which use the pictures on/pictures off system still can't provide more memory when the graphics aren't used and you still play exactly the same game.

If you do play the graphic game you'll be pleased to discover that Level 9 has introduced a multi-tasking system. You do not have to wait for pictures to be drawn and you can carry on typing your commands without any break. If you move quickly through a series of locations, you won't be held up by the graphics. You feel much more in control, especially as this system also uses the type-ahead function - there's no need to wait for a cursor to appear. That really makes the game flow and allows you to soak up the atmosphere without constantly being interrupted by the computer churning through its mechanical routines.

With easy input like this you're likely to be putting in a lot of questions and commands. If you prefer you can stick to verb/noun combinations but fairly full English sentences are possible too, allowing you to string things together with 'then' or 'and'. Punctuation is also understood.

When you ask the questions you'll get straight, detailed replies. If something isn't necessary to the game you'll be told. Examine a door in the garden and you'll be told "Door: that's just scenery," or "Fountain: ignore it." You waste no time on unproductive interrogations and can get into responses like this: "Strange tattoo: looking closer, you see it's really a one piece colour LCD implanted in the back of your wrist. Its moving display shows that the time is 6.87 and that you have 87 credits left."

Full information like that engages you quickly in your role as explorer of this flawed Utopia and creates immediate interest in the way things work in Eden and why. For exploration is what the game is all about, in one sense - by discovering how to travel, how to stay out of debt, where you live and all the other little things, you will begin to understand Eden and maybe then do something about the things you see going on. Remember knowledge is power.

I haven't yet worked out quite what political stance Level 9 is taking in the game. So far it seems to be about the tyranny of centralised powers and the reduction of people to mere ciphers. It's also a warning that while we dream and play, other forces work to make us unfree. That is heady stuff but it's done well with a wry and dry humour and a massive vocabulary. Even though I don't really yet know who I am or what I believe, I'm very sure that I want to continue until I find out.

If you don't want to think about parables or hidden messages don't worry - Worm is one of the best sci-fi adventures around with 200 plus locations, whopping atmosphere and an excellent storyline.

The machinery alone will intrigue you. How do you use this transport system: "You are on a walkway around the Eden Transport System, a klom wide force grid which looks like an enormous dart target. Exits lead north-ish to the 12 ET rings. An exit leads south. The floor is colour coded..."

This is the finest of Level 9's masterly adventures. It has an intricate, exciting, intelligent plot based in an equally intricate society run by baffling futuristic machines. You become completely absorbed because of the combination of a fluid and fluent interpreter, fine detail and an open format which offers you many options for action. It's a blend of Orwell's 1984, Logan's Run and that distinctive Level 9 quirkiness. Definitely refreshes the paradises other worms cannot reach. Get it.

SUPPLIER: Level 9
MACHINE: All formats
PRICE: £9.95

With Worm ends the saga of the colonists of Eridani, which started with their journey in the Snowball, led by Kim Kimberley. After her survival in Return to Eden, the plant has been tamed, and the colonists live in a high-tech utopia run by robots. Eden is a benevolent right wing bureaucracy in which there are no taxes, government revenue being raised by fines and health charges. If the general idea sounds familiar, then remember it is ruled by a woman, The Third Kim. Whilst no 'right-thinking' person would consider challenging the system, there is a thinking minority who dislikes it and are branded 'potential socialists'.

The adventure starts in a garden, with beautiful lawns and full of fragrant flowers. Its walls, festooned with roses and other climbing plants, are seemingly unclimbable. An ever-growing worm might lead you out if you succumb to the temptation, but it will not take you far, and one way or another, Reveline will bring you to your senses, and you will find yourself in the city of Enoch.

Exploration of the city brings you to places like the museum, casino, theme park, and dozens more.

Questions gradually form, and produce a feeling of unease - that all is not well in the ultimate of civilisations. Questions, but no real problems bar your passage through the city. But if you are the nosey type - eventually something will click, and (if) you were sensible enough to play it) memories from Snowball will come flooding back. Then the problem is there, in the form of a puzzle - crack it and you may be on your way to the seat of power, to save the world.

Worm in Paradise is the first product of Level 9's new adventure system, and certainly in the presentation of text it is reminiscent of Interlogic, and Infocom system. Worm has a vocabulary of over 1000 words plus many abbreviations, yet this is all in memory! The range of commands understood is very flexible; full sentence and multiple complex commands are accepted, such as EXAMINE ALL BUT THE TATTOO. When I first tried EXAMINE EVERYTHING I got a list which included descriptions of objects I hadn't even discovered!

The Silicon Dream trilogy is now complete, having spanned the evolution of Level 9's Adventure System from the original 2-work input, text only format in Snowball, through the introduction of graphics in Return to Eden, to this smooth and flexible new form of presentation.

Here is science-fiction-based political saga which you can just sit back and enjoy, or, if you prefer, involve yourself at a more challenging level in an attempt to reach the seat of power and save the world. Play it either way - I'm sure you'll agree it's superb!

Various
Level 9
£9.95

This latest text and graphics masterpiece has all the splendid qualities we've come to expect of Level 9 - masses of locations with a colourful fast-drawn picture for every one of them (except BBC B versions), type-ahead ability (no waiting for text or picture to be completed on screen), a massive vocabulary, advanced command parser, lashings of rich prose, a plethora of puzzles, and a plot lovingly crafted, and beautifully executed.

The Worm in Paradise is Level 9's ninth adventure and is the final part of their Silicon Dream trilogy (the other two parts are Snowball and Return to Eden but you don't have to have played them to enjoy this one). You play a citizen of Enoch megapolis on the planet Eden, a century on from the time of Snowball and Return to Eden. When the game starts, that's all you can remember. The quest? Reach the Seat of Power.

"Wot, no delectable Kim Kimberley?" the aficionados cry. "Oh yes there is," comes the retort - seek and ye may find. To further whet your appetite, this engrossing and challenging adventure features such diversities and diversions as a Jobcentre Droid, a Socialist (Enoch is very right-wing usually), Wiggly Roots, a non-fattening pizza, the Fabulous Riverboat, a flying saucer, the Dream Palace (a high-tech amusement arcade based on dreaming), and the Worm (you'll possibly never eat another apple again!).